No excuses, we were rubbish, blasts Dav

THE Liverpool Senior Cup may barely feature on Peter Davenport’s list of priorities, but the Southport manager made no attempt to hide his disappointment at the manner of the quarter-final defeat against Marine.

THE Liverpool Senior Cup may barely feature on Peter Davenport’s list of priorities, but the Southport manager made no attempt to hide his disappointment at the manner of the quarter-final defeat against Marine.

With a busy period of league fixtures about to start, Davenport used the game to give an outing to several players who haven’t featured regularly in recent weeks, but the Port boss admitted they wasted their chance to impress.

“It shows why they’re not in the team,” he reflected. “There are people who are really disappointed with the performance. They come knocking on the door asking questions why they aren’t in the team, well that answers it. They didn’t produce it tonight and I thought we were very poor.”

When Tony Gray opened the scoring on 13 minutes, the Sandgrounders seemed on course for a comfortable victory. But despite controlling the opening exchanges, Davenport’s side surrendered and were deservedly beaten by their efficient UniBond Premier League opponents.

Things started according to plan when Gray gave Southport the lead by converting a rebound after Michael Powell’s low drive had been parried by goalkeeper Andy Brown.

Gray had earlier fired wide from a Mark Houghton knock-down, while Neil Prince also went close, but the Sandgrounders’ encouraging start took a dramatic turn for the worse.

Peter Cumiskey dragged an effort wide from the edge of the area, before the Marine striker drew the home side level in the 33rd minute by stroking an angled shot into the far corner from a Steve Hussey pass.

Former Port winger Darren Brookfield was denied on the line by Chris Lever, while the Mariners were awarded a dubious penalty shortly after the re-start when Matt Hocking was judged to have impeded Shaun Tuck, despite making clear contact with the ball.

Justice was certainly done as keeper Richard Whiteside stopped Cumiskey’s spot-kick with an excellent reach to his bottom right-hand corner, but Marine weren’t to be denied the win.

James Connolly threatened from the subsequent corner before Hussey notched the decisive goal on 58 minutes by heading home Eddie Hussin’s free-kick at the far post.Houghton came closest to forcing extra time by drawing an instinctive stop from keeper Brown after being played in by Gray, but Marine were just as likely to add to the scoring, as Freddie Potter’s fierce drive was fisted away by Whiteside late on.